Our centre is currently closed, but we are teaching online. If you would like to take classes with us, please drop us an email at learn@zabaan.com, and we will get back to you.
Evening Hindi Classes
Designed specifically for the working professional or full-time student, our 90-minute evening group Hindi classes are held after working hours twice a week for ten weeks so you can achieve your language proficiency goals without disrupting your busy schedule.
Intensive Hindi Courses
If you want to fast track your language learning, our intensive Hindi courses cover more ground in less time. Ideal for students who wish to be fully immersed, these courses are offered every weekday for four intense weeks.
Urdu Classes
Zabaan conducts regular Saturday classes for Hindi speakers or advanced Hindi students who wish to learn to learn how to read and write Urdu. Sign-up for our Certificate Course in Urdu Script and start your language learning journey today!
Customised Classes
For students with specific goals or a unique schedule, private lessons are custom tailored to improve your language skills at a pace and learning style that’s right for you. These can be scheduled one-on-one or in small groups at our centres or online.
Our Teachers
Ali Taqi
Director, Instructor
Knows: English, Hindi, Urdu
Ali is the founder and co-director of Zabaan School for Languages. Born in Chicago to Indian parents, Ali earned his bachelor’s degree in International Studies and South Asian Languages and Literature at Loyola University. With a special interest in linguistics, semantics, syntax, bilingualism, and foreign language teaching techniques, Ali is fluent in English, Hindi, and Urdu, and teaches all three languages at Zabaan. Following his extensive teaching career in Chicago and Seattle, Ali has now personally taught over 11,000 hours of classes.
Neha Tiwari
Director, Instructor
Knows: English, Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Persian
Neha is one of the directors of Zabaan School for Languages and also instructor for Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and Basic Persian. Neha’s passion for languages and cultures and her interest in their intersection are what originally drew her to Zabaan. Before joining the Zabaan team in 2011, Neha worked in the corporate sector in Mumbai. She holds a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and an M.A. in Economics from Delhi School of Economics. A language learner herself, Neha understands her students’ needs and expectations and pushes them to achieve their learning goals. She works with students on all language skills at all levels, but pays special attention to improving listening comprehension and oral communication. She also taught a 45 hour basic Hindi course at the Middlebury College in Vermont in January 2019.
Mohd Raza Ali
Senior Instructor
Knows: Hindi, Urdu, English, Arabic, Persian
A native speaker of Hindi/Urdu, Raza earned his BA and MA from Lucknow University and completed his PhD in Urdu Literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University. His primary research focus has been on modern Urdu prose as it emerged after Independence. He is also deeply interested in Urdu novels, Afsana (short story), screenplays, and poetry. He has had numerous articles published in various magazines and newspapers on the topic of Urdu/Hindi language and literature.
Raza has been a Hindi and Urdu language instructor for nearly a decade, starting his teaching career at the American Institute of Indian Studies (A.I.I.S) in Lucknow and at the Centre of Indian Languages, School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He has taught intermediate and advanced Hindi/Urdu at Zabaan language institute since 2011. His teaching approach and methodology is aimed at strengthening vocabulary, bolstering reading comprehension and speed, building oral presentation skills, and improving listening comprehension and conversation fluency. He also supports students in conducting literature surveys and comparative studies. Lessons with Raza typically involve review and discussion of carefully selected reading materials that align with the student’s interests accompanied by a thorough explanation of new vocabulary words — their root constructions, origin, pronunciation, and contextual meaning.
Rachayta Gupta
Senior Instructor
Knows: English, Hindi, Braj Bhasha, Shekhawati
Rachayta has been teaching Hindi and Braj Bhasha at Zabaan since 2012. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Hindi from Delhi University in 2010 and her master’s degree in Linguistics from Jawaharlal Nehru University two years later. A native Hindi speaker and student of the language, Rachayta is knowledgeable about the language at both a conversational and structural level. Her love of linguistics enables her to deconstruct the language and simplify it for students while her interest in Hindi literature allows her to carefully select the most appropriate reading for her students according to their interests and language learning goals. Her passion for other regional languages led her to learn Braj Bhasha, the 16th century western dialect of Hindi. She also learned Urdu during her time at Zabaan and is now teaching it at all levels.
Anshu Saluja
Instructor
Knows: English, Hindi, Punjabi, Balochi
Anshu has been teaching Hindi and Punjabi at Zabaan since 2015. She holds a B.Ed. degree and has cleared the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET). She earned her Masters in History and Hindi from Delhi University and is currently pursuing a diploma in Sanskrit from St. Stephen’s College University of Delhi. Anshu continues to build her foreign language skills. With ancestors hailing from Balochistan, Anshu has also inherited the Balochi language. She has also gained conversational proficiency in Bengali after marrying into a Bengali family.
Dhritismita Bora
Instructor
Knows: English, Hindi, Assamese
Dhritismita has been teaching Hindi and Assamese at Zabaan. She holds a BA and MA in Psychology from University of Delhi and also has experience as a psychological counselor. Her love and enthusiasm for Assamese, her native language, and Hindi inspired her to start teaching at Zabaan. She structures her classes according to the needs and interests of her students and uses various teaching methods in class such as grammar drills, oral and written compositions and also visual aids such as movies and documentaries.
Juhi Mendiratta
Student Advisor, Instructor
Knows: English, Hindi, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, German
Juhi has been teaching at Zabaan since May 2018. She has done her Bachelors in English Literature and has a Masters degree in East Asian Studies from Delhi University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in International Relations at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea, and lived in Korea from 2013-2017. Her passion for languages allows her to negotiate and bridge the gap between English and Hindi for non-native speakers. With 7 years experience of teaching English and Hindi to Korean students and professionals, Juhi specialises in teaching new languages via Korean.
Classes with Juhi tend to focus on conversation in daily usage, simplifying Hindi for better understanding, similarities between languages and transcending language barriers. Juhi also has various TV appearances and publications to her name.
Riya Tyagi
Instructor
Knows: Hindi, English and Urdu
Riya completed her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Delhi University and is currently doing her Bachelor’s in Education. She likes reading and writing poetry. She has been doing private tutoring since 2014 before joining Zabaan. Currently, she is learning Arabic and she strongly believes in a Czech proverb that says, “Learn a new language and get a new soul.” It is her love for linguistics and teaching that has brought her to Zabaan! She has been teaching Hindi, Urdu and English at Zabaan since 2019.
Vartika Pande
Instructor
Knows: Hindi, English and Urdu
Vartika is a Hindi and Urdu language instructor. She was born and raised in Lucknow. She went on to pursue her degree in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, DU. Having previously worked in the Public Policy sector, and being a politics enthusiast, the politicisation of the two languages (Hindi and Urdu) interests her. And being Lucknowi only makes her more passionate about deconstructing the nuances to bring out the differences and similarities between the two languages. Vartika started teaching at Zabaan in 2019.
Manisha Gupta
Instructor
Knows: Hindi, English and French
Manisha has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Lady Shri Ram College for women (LSR), Delhi University and is currently pursuing her masters in English. She also holds DELF (Diplôme d’etudes en langue Française) B2 level and is currently pursuing C1 level from Alliance Française de Delhi. She has an ardent love for learning and teaching languages and that reflects in her passion to motivate her students to find their unique voice and personality in the language they learn. She is patient and clear, and empowers her students to learn and speak the language they are learning confidently and fluently.
Before joining Zabaan, Manisha worked with Shanti Sahyog, an NGO, for one year where she helped underprivileged children develop their aptitude in English language. She was also a part of the Delhi English Project organised by the Delhi Government in association with Macmillan Education and the British Council. She has been a private language instructor for three years before joining Zabaan School For Languages in 2019.
V.R. Jagannathan
Part-time Instructor, Mentor
Knows: English, Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit
Prof. Jagannathan is a linguist interested in syntax and theory of grammar. He also specializes in areas of applied linguistics such as language pedagogy and lexicography and has vast experience in researching and developing teaching methodologies for Hindi as a second and foreign language. He has written several books on Hindi grammar and usage and several Hindi dictionaries for learners of various proficiency levels. He currently teaches Hindi and Tamil at Zabaan and specializes in developing oral skills from the elementary level by using a variety of oral drills. He uses his own materials for his classes.
Our Clients
Our students include diplomats from many High Commissions and Embassies in New Delhi and Mumbai; they also include staff from international media sector, business professionals from the corporate sector, NGO workers, actors, film producers and directors, as well as their spouses, partners and other family members.
Our current and former students include people from:
High Commission of Singapore | Tokyo University of Foreign Studies | |
Embassy of UAE | Middlebury College | |
Qatar Embassy | Australian National University | |
United States Air Force | Harvard University | |
United States Department of Defence | University of Princeton | |
Samsung | University of Wisconsin Madison | |
Sony | University of California, Berkeley | |
Fulbright Scholars | Yale University |
Success Stories
As India’s premier foreign language school with centres in New Delhi and Mumbai, Zabaan provides high-quality instruction in more than fifteen languages — both modern and classical — originating from South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. United by a passion for language learning and decades of collective teaching experience, Zabaan’s multinational team of teachers has a proven track record of success in achieving proficiency for their students. Zabaan is widely known for its Hindi classes for expats and foreigners and Urdu classes for Hindi speakers.
What our students say
I have completed two Hindi intensives at Zabaan and I have to say that this school is amazing. The knowledge of Hindi grammar, sentence structure, script, tenses, etc. from every teacher is impeccable. They are truly grammartarians.
David, 7 May 2019
Having studied both Hindi and Urdu at Zabaan for over two years, I have nothing but praise for the hard work all the staff puts in to make learning interesting, inspiring and efficient.
Pia, 30 April 2019
In my experience, Zabaan stands out for its combination of teachers who know Hindi in depth but also have an incredibly profound and helpful meta-understanding of the language–things like grammar, syntax, and tone/context.
Thomas, 26 January 2019
Read more about the learning experience at Zabaan on our testimonials page.
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New Courses
At Zabaan, we are working constantly on new courses and materials and teaching methodologies! We are proud to introduce four new courses as part of our offerings in Delhi. Check them out!
This course is meant for students who would like to pick up basic constructions and patterns in Hindi that can help in day to day interactions. More emphasis will be placed on learning useful phrases and vocabulary and speaking in Hindi in class. There is no reading and writing component in this course.
If you are a ghazal fan and/or if you would like to learn more about them, sign-up for our upcoming batches for this course!
The course will also introduce you to the fundamentals of Persio-Arabic script and, as such, it will be useful for learners of Persian and to an extent, of Arabic, as well.
Book Classes
Take classes at our centre in Kailash Colony, New Delhi, or online via Skype or Google Hangouts.
Latest Blog Posts
We love writing about language learning and teaching and our teachers’ and students’ language learning experiences! Read some of our latest blog posts here: